Confédération générale du travail unitaire
The Confédération générale du travail unitaire, or CGTU was a trade union confederation in France that at first included anarcho-syndicalists and soon became aligned with the French Communist Party. It was founded in 1922 as a confederation of radical unions that had left the socialist-dominated General Confederation of Labour, in 1936 merged back into the CGT; the CGTU emerged from a split in the General Confederation of Labour, torn by confrontations between socialist members of the French Section of the Workers' International and the more radical anarcho-syndicalists and members of the French Communist Party. The CGTU took the majority of the CGT with it; the syndicalists and anarchists outnumbered the communists. Joseph Tommasi, a member of the PCF executive committee, attended the congress in Saint-Étienne on 25 June – 1 July 1922 at which the syndicates and federations, excluded from the CGT founded the CGTU; the dynamic new organization was attached to peace and to the anti-imperialist and anti-colonialist struggle.
As a member of the anarcho-syndicalist minority of the CGT, Gaston Monmousseau became General Secretary of the CGTU, a position he held until 1933. Over the first two or three years many of the syndicalists joined the communist movement, including leaders such as Alfred Rosmer and Pierre Monatte; the syndicalists became disillusioned with the control exerted by Moscow over the party, the Trotskyite purges. Marie Guillot founded a new "unitary" confederation of teachers, with its first confederal Congress held at Saint-Étienne in June 1922. Marie Guillot took an intermediate position in the continuum of revolutionary syndicalism, while recognizing the merits of the Soviet Revolution. Guillot was appointed to the confederal Bureau of the CGTU after the withdrawal of her colleague Louis Bouët; this was the first time a woman was part of the Confederation Office, according to the L'Humanité. The cohabitation of revolutionary syndicalists with supporters of unconditional international centralism did not last long, Guillot resigned from her responsibilities within the CGTU in July 1923.
In November 1922 Monmousseau represented the CGTU at the second congress of the Red International of Trade Unions in Moscow. Pierre Semard, a leader in the PCF, played an important role in the debate between Communists and Anarcho-Syndicalists over the role of the CGTU at its Bourges Congress in September 1923. Semard proposed a motion, passed by a great majority, that the CGTU would commit itself to a tireless struggle for the defense of workers; this was a victory for the Communist faction. In 1923 CGTU became a Profintern affiliate; the communist controlled the CGTU after 1924. They introduced changes to the original constitution. Union officials were now eligible for reelection, votes were proportion to the number of union members represented. Efforts unsuccessful, were made to replace local organizations by regional ones, with officials loyal to the party rather than to their local base. Lucie Colliard was a deputy member of the PCF's 24-member steering committee from 1922 to 1924, she was a member of the female secretariat of the CGTU from 1923 to 1925.
In 1926, some of the CGTU members left to create the Confédération Générale du Travail-Syndicaliste Révolutionnaire. Some syndicalists stayed with the CGTU and others returned to the CGT. Marie Mayoux and her husband François Mayoux, leaders of the teachers' union, were expelled from the PCF at the party congress held in Paris on 16–19 October 1922 as "unrepentant sydicalists". In 1929 they were expelled from the CGTU; the CGTU membership declined in comparison to the CGT due to internal disagreements, ineffective strikes and troubles within the Communist Party. During the Popular Front period the CGTU merged back into CGT. Monmousseau participated in founding the reunified CGT in 1936
Vietnamese cuisine
Vietnamese cuisine encompasses the foods and beverages of Vietnam, features a combination of five fundamental tastes in the overall meal. Each Vietnamese dish has a distinctive flavor. Common ingredients include fish sauce, shrimp paste, soy sauce, bean sauce, fresh herbs and vegetables. Vietnamese recipes use lemongrass, mint, Vietnamese mint, long coriander, Saigon cinnamon, bird's eye chili and Thai basil leaves. Traditional Vietnamese cooking is admired for its fresh ingredients, minimal use of dairy and oil, complementary textures, reliance on herbs and vegetables. With the balance between fresh herbs and meats and a selective use of spices to reach a fine taste, Vietnamese food is considered one of the healthiest cuisines worldwide. Due to the Chinese domination of Vietnam, Vietnamese cuisine is influenced by traditional Chinese medicine; as the people respect balance rules, Vietnamese cuisine always combines fragrance and colour. Vietnamese cuisine always has five elements which are known for its balance in each of these features.
Many Vietnamese dishes include five fundamental taste senses: spicy, bitter and sweet, corresponding to five organs: gall bladder, small intestine, large intestine and urinary bladder. Vietnamese dishes include five types of nutrients: powder, water or liquid, mineral elements and fat. Vietnamese cooks try to have five colours: white, yellow and black in their dishes. Dishes in Vietnam appeal to gastronomes via the five senses: food arrangement attracts eyes, sounds come from crisp ingredients, five spices are detected on the tongue, aromatic ingredients coming from herbs stimulate the nose, some meals finger food, can be perceived by touching. Whether complex or simple, Vietnamese dishes offer satisfying mouthfeel during the dining enjoyment. Vietnamese cuisine is influenced by the Asian principle of Mahābhūta; the principle of yin and yang is applied in composing a meal in a way that provides a balance, beneficial for the body. While contrasting texture and flavors are important, the principle concerns the "heating" and "cooling" properties of ingredients.
Certain dishes are served in their respective seasons to provide contrasts in temperature and spiciness of the food and environment. Some examples are: Duck meat, considered "cool", is served during the hot summer with ginger fish sauce, "warm". Conversely, "warm", pork, "hot", are eaten in the winter. Seafoods ranging from "cool" to "cold" are suitable to use with ginger. Spicy foods are balanced with sourness, considered "cool". Balut, meaning "upside-down egg", must be combined with Vietnamese mint. Salt is used as the connection between the worlds of the dead. Bánh phu thê is used to remind new couples of harmony at their weddings. Food is placed at the ancestral altar as an offering to the dead on special occasions. Cooking and eating play an important role in Vietnamese culture; the word ăn has a large range of semantic extensions. The mainstream culinary traditions in all three regions of Vietnam share some fundamental features: Freshness of food: Most meats are only cooked. Vegetables are eaten fresh.
Presence of herbs and vegetables: Herbs and vegetables are essential to many Vietnamese dishes and are abundantly used. Variety and harmony of textures: Crisp with soft, watery with crunchy, delicate with rough. Broths or soup-based dishes are common in all three regions. Presentation: The condiments accompanying Vietnamese meals are colorful and arranged in eye-pleasing manners. While sharing some key features, Vietnamese culinary tradition differs from region to region. In northern Vietnam, a colder climate limits the availability of spices; as a result, the foods there are less spicy than those in other regions. Black pepper is used in place of chilis as the most popular ingredient to produce spicy flavors. In general, northern Vietnamese cuisine is not bold in any particular taste — sweet, spicy, bitter, or sour. Most northern Vietnamese foods feature light and balanced flavors that result from subtle combinations of many different flavoring ingredients; the use of meats such as pork and chicken were limited in the past.
Freshwater fish and mollusks, such as prawns, shrimps, crabs and mussels, are used. Many notable dishes of northern Vietnam are crab-centered. Fish sauce, soy sauce, prawn sauce, limes are among the main flavoring ingredients. Being the cradle of Vietnamese civilization, northern Vietnam produces many signature dishes of Vietnam, such as bún riêu and bánh cuốn, which were carried to central and southern Vietnam through Vietnamese migration. Other famous Vietnamese dishes that originated from the North from Hanoi include "bún chả", phở gà, chả cá Lã Vọng; the abundance of spices produced by central Vietnam’s mountainous terrain makes this region’s cuisine notable for its spicy food, which sets it apart from the two other regions of Vietnam where foods are not spicy. Once the capital of the last dynasty of Vietnam, Huế's culinary tradition features decorative and
United Kingdom
The United Kingdom the United Kingdom of Great Britain and Northern Ireland, sometimes referred to as Britain, is a sovereign country located off the north-western coast of the European mainland. The United Kingdom includes the island of Great Britain, the north-eastern part of the island of Ireland, many smaller islands. Northern Ireland is the only part of the United Kingdom that shares a land border with another sovereign state, the Republic of Ireland. Apart from this land border, the United Kingdom is surrounded by the Atlantic Ocean, with the North Sea to the east, the English Channel to the south and the Celtic Sea to the south-west, giving it the 12th-longest coastline in the world; the Irish Sea lies between Great Ireland. With an area of 242,500 square kilometres, the United Kingdom is the 78th-largest sovereign state in the world, it is the 22nd-most populous country, with an estimated 66.0 million inhabitants in 2017. The UK is constitutional monarchy; the current monarch is Queen Elizabeth II, who has reigned since 1952, making her the longest-serving current head of state.
The United Kingdom's capital and largest city is London, a global city and financial centre with an urban area population of 10.3 million. Other major urban areas in the UK include Greater Manchester, the West Midlands and West Yorkshire conurbations, Greater Glasgow and the Liverpool Built-up Area; the United Kingdom consists of four constituent countries: England, Scotland and Northern Ireland. Their capitals are London, Edinburgh and Belfast, respectively. Apart from England, the countries have their own devolved governments, each with varying powers, but such power is delegated by the Parliament of the United Kingdom, which may enact laws unilaterally altering or abolishing devolution; the nearby Isle of Man, Bailiwick of Guernsey and Bailiwick of Jersey are not part of the UK, being Crown dependencies with the British Government responsible for defence and international representation. The medieval conquest and subsequent annexation of Wales by the Kingdom of England, followed by the union between England and Scotland in 1707 to form the Kingdom of Great Britain, the union in 1801 of Great Britain with the Kingdom of Ireland created the United Kingdom of Great Britain and Ireland.
Five-sixths of Ireland seceded from the UK in 1922, leaving the present formulation of the United Kingdom of Great Britain and Northern Ireland. There are fourteen British Overseas Territories, the remnants of the British Empire which, at its height in the 1920s, encompassed a quarter of the world's land mass and was the largest empire in history. British influence can be observed in the language and political systems of many of its former colonies; the United Kingdom is a developed country and has the world's fifth-largest economy by nominal GDP and ninth-largest economy by purchasing power parity. It has a high-income economy and has a high Human Development Index rating, ranking 14th in the world, it was the world's first industrialised country and the world's foremost power during the 19th and early 20th centuries. The UK remains a great power, with considerable economic, military and political influence internationally, it is sixth in military expenditure in the world. It has been a permanent member of the United Nations Security Council since its first session in 1946.
It has been a leading member state of the European Union and its predecessor, the European Economic Community, since 1973. The United Kingdom is a member of the Commonwealth of Nations, the Council of Europe, the G7, the G20, NATO, the Organisation for Economic Co-operation and Development and the World Trade Organization; the 1707 Acts of Union declared that the kingdoms of England and Scotland were "United into One Kingdom by the Name of Great Britain". The term "United Kingdom" has been used as a description for the former kingdom of Great Britain, although its official name from 1707 to 1800 was "Great Britain"; the Acts of Union 1800 united the kingdom of Great Britain and the kingdom of Ireland in 1801, forming the United Kingdom of Great Britain and Ireland. Following the partition of Ireland and the independence of the Irish Free State in 1922, which left Northern Ireland as the only part of the island of Ireland within the United Kingdom, the name was changed to the "United Kingdom of Great Britain and Northern Ireland".
Although the United Kingdom is a sovereign country, Scotland and Northern Ireland are widely referred to as countries. The UK Prime Minister's website has used the phrase "countries within a country" to describe the United Kingdom; some statistical summaries, such as those for the twelve NUTS 1 regions of the United Kingdom refer to Scotland and Northern Ireland as "regions". Northern Ireland is referred to as a "province". With regard to Northern Ireland, the descriptive name used "can be controversial, with the choice revealing one's political preferences"; the term "Great Britain" conventionally refers to the island of Great Britain, or politically to England and Wales in combination. However, it is sometimes used as a loose synonym for the United Kingdom as a whole; the term "Britain" is used both as a synonym for Great Britain, as a synonym for the United Kingdom. Usage is mixed, with the BBC preferring to use Britain as shorthand only for Great Britain and the UK Government, while accepting that both terms refer to the United K
Cultural assimilation
Cultural assimilation is the process in which a minority group or culture comes to resemble those of a dominant group. The term is used to refer to both groups. Cultural assimilation may involve either a quick or a gradual change depending on circumstances of the group. Full assimilation occurs when members of a society become indistinguishable from those of the dominant group. Whether it is desirable for a given group to assimilate is disputed by both members of the group and those of the dominant society. Cultural assimilation does not guarantee social alikeness. Geographical and other natural barriers between cultures if created by the dominant culture, may be culturally different. A place, state, or ethnicity can spontaneously adopt a different culture because of its political relevance or its perceived cultural superiority. An example is the Latin language and Roman culture being adopted by most of the people subjugated by Ancient Rome. Cultural assimilation can happen either spontaneously or forcibly.
A culture can spontaneously adopt a different culture. Older, richer, or otherwise more dominant cultures can forcibly absorb subordinate cultures; the term “assimilation” is used with regard to not only indigenous groups but immigrants settled in a new land. A new culture and new attitudes toward the origin culture are obtained through contact and communication. Assimilation assumes; that process happens by accommodation between each culture. The current definition of assimilation is used to refer to immigrants, but in multiculturalism, cultural assimilation can happen all over the world and within varying social contexts and is not limited to specific areas. For example, a shared language gives people the chance to study and work internationally, without being limited to the same cultural group. People from different countries contribute to diversity and form the "global culture" which means the culture combined by the elements from different countries; that "global culture" can be seen as a part of assimilation, which causes cultures from different areas to affect one another.
During the 19th and 20th centuries, the Canadian government began a campaign to forcibly assimilate Aboriginals. The government consolidated power over Aboriginal land through treaties and the use of force isolating indigenous people to reserves. Marriage practices and spiritual ceremonies were banned, spiritual leaders were imprisoned. Additionally, the Canadian government instituted an extensive residential school system to assimilate children; the Truth and Reconciliation Commission of Canada concluded that this effort was violent enough to amount to cultural genocide. The schools worked to alienate children from their cultural roots. Students were prohibited from speaking their native languages, were abused, were arranged marriages by the government after their graduation; the explicit goal of the Canadian government was to assimilate the Aboriginals into European culture and destroy all traces of their native history. In January 2019, newly elected Brazil's president Jair Bolsonaro has stripped the indigenous affairs agency FUNAI of the responsibility to identify and demarcate indigenous lands.
He argued that those territories have tiny isolated populations and proposed to integrate them into the larger Brazilian society. According to the Survival International, "Taking responsibility for indigenous land demarcation away from FUNAI, the Indian affairs department, giving it to the Agriculture Ministry is a declaration of open warfare against Brazil’s tribal peoples." Immigrant assimilation is a complex process in which immigrants not only integrate themselves into a new country but lose aspects even all of their heritage. Social scientists rely on four primary benchmarks to assess immigrant assimilation: socioeconomic status, geographic distribution, second language attainment, intermarriage. William A. V. Clark defines immigrant assimilation as "a way of understanding the social dynamics of American society and that it is the process that occurs spontaneously and unintended in the course of interaction between majority and minority groups." Between 1880 and 1920, the United States took in 24 million immigrants.
This increase in immigration can be attributed to many historical changes. The beginning of the 21st century has marked a massive era of immigration, sociologists are once again trying to make sense of the impacts that immigration has on society and on the immigrants themselves. Assimilation had various meanings in American sociology. Henry Pratt Fairchild associates American assimilation with Americanization or the melting pot theory; some scholars believed that assimilation and acculturation were synonymous. According to a common point of view, assimilation is a "process of interpretation and fusion" from another group or person; that may include memories and sentiments. By sharing their experiences and histories, they blend into the common cultural life; the long history of immigration in the established gateways means that the place of immigrants in terms of class and ethnic hierarchies in the traditional gateways is more structured or established, but on the other hand, the new gateways do not have much immigration history and so the place of immigrants in terms of class and ethnic hierarchies is less defined, immigrants may have more
Exposition des produits de l'industrie française
The Exposition des produits de l'industrie française was a public event organized in Paris, from 1798 to 1849. The purpose was "to offer a panorama of the productions of the various branches of industry with a view to emulation", it was a precursor to The Great Exhibition of 1851 in London. The Paris industrial expositions between 1798 and 1849 can trace their origins to the fairs that were held in several cities of Europe in the Middle Ages. After the start of the French Revolution of 1789–98 the authorities staged a series of festivals in Paris, starting with the Festival of the Federation on 14 July 1790 and followed by events such as the Festival of Law, Festival of Reason, Festival of the Supreme Being, Festival of the Foundation of the Republic; these celebrations of the new republic helped to unite the people and win acceptance of the new order. The Directory launched the first exposition at a time when France was engaged in external wars and was still in upheaval from the revolution.
The idea of an industrial exposition emerged from discussions led by the Minister of the Interior François de Neufchâteau over how to celebrate the anniversary of the Republic's foundation. The Directory approved and on 9 Fructidor, Year VI, François de Neufchâteau notified the government officials that an Exposition of the products of French industry would be held along with the 1 Vendémiaire VII anniversary celebration; the first exposition was held at the Champ de Mars. The architect Jean-François Chalgrin, who designed the Arc de Triomphe, undertook the hasty construction of a large circle of porticos surrounding a Temple of Industry; the temple would hold the objects of industries. The official exposition took place during the five last days of the year VI; the exposition opened on 19 September 1798 with a parade led by trumpeters and cavalry, with musicians, heralds, the jury and politicians. There were 110 French exhibitors. Due to the short notice, there were few exhibitors, all from Paris or the neighboring departments.
There were further festivities and speeches on the fifth day, the last official day of the exposition. The exposition remained open until 10 Vendemiaire Year VII (1 October 1798. Exhibits included an instrument for cataract operations, paintings made from the plumes of exotic birds, a machine for extracting logs from rivers and a device that demonstrated the new metric system of meters and liters; the jury was told to favour products. Twelve exhibitors were given honorable distinctions. Thirteen received. Honorable distinctions included: Abraham-Louis Breguet: a clock with free escapement. Étienne Lenoir: a precision balance. Pierre and Firmin Didot and Louis Etienne Herhan: an edition of Virgil. Jean-François Clouet: iron transformed into steel. Nicolas-Jacques Conté: crayons of various colors; the exhibitions that followed the first exposition were always for French products, were successful. The Minister of the Interior, Jean-Antoine Chaptal, sent his recommendation for another industrial exposition to the three consuls on 22 Brumaire Year IX.
After the continental peace seemed assured, on 13 Ventôse Year IX the first consul ordered another exposition for the 5 last days of year IX. This exhibition was much more brilliant than the first, with more competitors and higher quality exhibits; the second exhibition was organized in the square courtyard of the Louvre. It was held from September 19–25 1801. There were 220 exhibitors. 19 gold medals were awarded in total, including seven who had received honorable distinctions in Year VI, 12 new exhibitors. The three consuls visited the exposition on the last complementary day (22 September 1801, distributed 12 gold medals to manufacturers including Jacob Frères; the Jacobs shared the medal for furniture with Lignereux. The revolutionary Jacquard loom, driven by punch cards, received a bronze medal; the jury's report noted that it "replaces a worker in the weaving of brocades". It took several years before it was realized that rather than replacing weavers, the loom made higher volumes of sales possible and employed many more workers.
In the year X the exposition lasted 7 days, with 540 exhibitors. It took place from September 18–24 in the courtyard of the Louvre. There were 540 exhibitors; the exhibitors came from 63 departments, of which 12 would be separated from France in 1815. Chaptal, Minister of the Interior, was not interested in brilliantly executed work or in commonplace manufactures, but valued products for their utility and price, he saw the same merit in coarse pottery, if it was cheap, as the most elegant porcelain. 38 gold medals were awarded. There were 60 bronze medals. Martin-Eloy Lignereux was awarded the gold medal for cabinet-making. After the Year X exposition the government decided that more time was needed between the expositions to allow for advances in manufacturing to mature, put off the next exposition until 1806. In the interim the Société d'encouragement pour l'industrie nationale, founded in 1801, continued to give prizes for many branches of industry; the Emperor Napoleon decreed the 1806 exposition on 15 February 1806 after his return from the Austerlitz campaign, the event was in part to celebrate his victories by exhibiting the fruits of peace.
The 1806 exposition lasted 24 days, with 1,422 exhibitors. It was held from September 25 to October 19 on the Esplanade des Invalides, arranged by Chaptal's successor as Minister of the Interior, Jean-Baptiste de N
Colonialism
Colonialism is the policy of a nation seeking to extend or retain its authority over other people or territories with the aim of opening trade opportunities. The colonizing country seeks to benefit from the colonized land mass. In the process, colonizers imposed their religion and medicinal practices on the natives; some argue this was a positive move toward modernization, while other scholars counter that this is an intrinsically Eurocentric rationalization, given that modernization is itself a concept introduced by Europeans. Colonialism is regarded as a relationship of domination of an indigenous majority by a minority of foreign invaders where the latter rule in pursuit of its interests. Early records of colonization go as far back as Phoenicians, an enterprising maritime trading culture that spread across the Mediterranean from 1550 BC to 300 BC and the Greeks and Persians continued on this line of setting up colonies; the Romans would soon follow, setting up colonies throughout the Mediterranean, Northern Africa, Western Asia.
In the 9th century a new wave of Mediterranean colonization had begun between competing states such as the Islamic Ottomans and the Venetians and Amalfians, invading the wealthy Byzantine or Eastern Roman islands and lands. Venice began with the conquest of Dalmatia and reached its greatest nominal extent at the conclusion of the Fourth Crusade in 1204, with the declaration of the acquisition of three octaves of the Byzantine Empire. In the 15th century some European states established their own empires during the European colonial period; the Belgian, Danish, French, Russian and Swedish empires established colonies across large areas. Imperial Japan, the Ottoman Empire and the United States acquired colonies, as did imperialist China and in the late 19th century the German and the Italian. At first, European colonizing countries followed policies of mercantilism, in order to strengthen the home economy, so agreements restricted the colonies to trading only with the metropole. By the mid-19th century, the British Empire gave up mercantilism and trade restrictions and adopted the principle of free trade, with few restrictions or tariffs.
Christian missionaries were active in all of the colonies because the Colonialists were Christians. Historian Philip Hoffman calculated that by 1800, before the Industrial Revolution, Europeans controlled at least 35% of the globe, by 1914, they had gained control of 84%. In the aftermath of World War II, the archetypal European colonial system ended between 1945–1975, when nearly all Europe's colonies gained political independence. Collins English Dictionary defines colonialism as "the policy and practice of a power in extending control over weaker peoples or areas". Webster's Encyclopedic Dictionary defines colonialism as "the system or policy of a nation seeking to extend or retain its authority over other people or territories"; the Merriam-Webster Dictionary offers four definitions, including "something characteristic of a colony" and "control by one power over a dependent area or people". The Stanford Encyclopedia of Philosophy "uses the term'colonialism' to describe the process of European settlement and political control over the rest of the world, including the Americas and parts of Africa and Asia".
It discusses the distinction between colonialism and imperialism and states that "given the difficulty of distinguishing between the two terms, this entry will use colonialism as a broad concept that refers to the project of European political domination from the sixteenth to the twentieth centuries that ended with the national liberation movements of the 1960s". In his preface to Jürgen Osterhammel's Colonialism: A Theoretical Overview, Roger Tignor says "For Osterhammel, the essence of colonialism is the existence of colonies, which are by definition governed differently from other territories such as protectorates or informal spheres of influence." In the book, Osterhammel asks, "How can'colonialism' be defined independently from'colony?'" He settles on a three-sentence definition: Colonialism is a relationship between an indigenous majority and a minority of foreign invaders. The fundamental decisions affecting the lives of the colonized people are made and implemented by the colonial rulers in pursuit of interests that are defined in a distant metropolis.
Rejecting cultural compromises with the colonized population, the colonizers are convinced of their own superiority and their ordained mandate to rule. Historians distinguish between various overlapping forms of colonialism, which are classified into four types: settler colonialism, exploitation colonialism, surrogate colonialism, internal colonialism. Settler colonialism involves large-scale immigration motivated by religious, political, or economic reasons, it pursues to replace the original population. Here, a large number of people emigrate to the colony for the purpose of staying and cultivating the land. Australia, Israel, South Africa, the United States are all examples of current settler colonial societies. Exploitation colonialism involves fewer colonists and focuses on the exploitation of natural resources or population as labor to the benefit of the metropole; this category includes trading posts as well as larger colonies where colonists would constitute much of the political and economic administration.
Prior to the end of the slave trade and widespread abolition, when indigenous labor was unavailable, slaves were imported to the Americas, first by the Portuguese Empire, by the Spanish, Dutch and British. Surrogate colonialism involves a set
Exposition Universelle (1878)
The third Paris World's Fair, called an Exposition Universelle in French, was held from 1 May through to 10 November 1878. It celebrated the recovery of France after the 1870–71 Franco-Prussian War; the buildings and the fairgrounds were somewhat unfinished on opening day, as political complications had prevented the French government from paying much attention to the exhibition until six months before it was due to open. However, efforts made in April were prodigious, by 1 June, a month after the formal opening, the exhibition was completed; this exposition was on a far larger scale than any held anywhere in the world. It covered over 66 acres, the main building in the Champ de Mars and the hill of Chaillot, occupying 54 acres; the Gare du Champ de Mars was rebuilt with four tracks to receive rail traffic occasioned by the exposition. The Pont d'Iéna linked the two exhibition sites along the central allée; the French exhibits filled one-half of the entire space, with the remaining exhibition space divided among the other nations of the world.
Germany was the only major country, not represented, but there were a few German paintings being exhibited. The United States exhibition was headed by a series of commissioners, which included Pierce M. B. Young, a former United States Congressman and major general in the Confederate States Army and Floyd Perry Baker, a Kansas newspaper editor, as well as other generals and celebrities; the United Kingdom, British India, Victoria, New South Wales, South Australia, Cape Colony and some of the British crown colonies occupied nearly one-third of the space set aside for nations outside France. The United Kingdom's expenditure was defrayed out of the consolidated revenue; the UK display was under the control of a royal commission, of which the Prince of Wales was president. The exhibition of fine arts and new machinery was on a large and comprehensive scale, the Avenue des Nations, a street 730 metres in length, was devoted to examples of the domestic architecture of nearly every country in Europe and several in Asia and America.
The "Gallery of Machines" was a metallic building, an industrial showcase of low transverse arches, designed by the engineer Henri de Dion. Many of the buildings and statues were made of staff, a low-cost temporary building material invented in Paris in 1876, which consisted of jute fiber, plaster of Paris, cement. On the northern bank of the Seine River, an elaborate palace was constructed for the exhibition at the tip of the Place du Trocadéro, it was a handsome "Moorish" structure, with towers 76 metres in flanked by two galleries. It had a Cavaillé-Coll organ, inaugurated with a concert in which Charles Marie Widor played the premiere of his Symphony for Organ No. 6. The building stood until 1937. On 30 June 1878, the completed head of the Statue of Liberty was showcased in the garden of the Trocadéro palace, while other pieces were on display in the Champs de Mars. Among the many inventions on display was Alexander Graham Bell's telephone. Electric arc lighting had been installed all along the Avenue de l'Opera and the Place de l'Opera, in June, a switch was thrown and the area was lit by electric Yablochkov arc lamps, powered by Zénobe Gramme dynamos.
Thomas Edison had on display a phonograph. International juries judged the various exhibits, awarding medals of gold and bronze. One popular feature was a human zoo, called a "negro village", composed of 400 "indigenous people", and Augustin Mouchot's Solar powered engine converting solar energy into mechanical steam power, he won a Gold Medal in Class 54 for his works, most notably the production of ice using concentrated solar heat. Henry E. Steinway exhibited a grand piano which "attracted extraordinary attention". Gold award for painting: Jan Matejko, for The Hanging of the Sigismund Bell, Union of Lublin and Wacław Wilczek. Gold award for photography: Aimé Dupont Over 13 million people paid to attend the exposition, making it a financial success; the cost of the enterprise to the French government, which supplied all the construction and operating funds, was a little less than a million British Pounds, after allowing for the value of the permanent buildings and the Trocadero Palace, which were sold to the city of Paris.
The total number of persons who visited Paris during the time the exhibition was open was 571,792, or 308,974 more than came to the French metropolis during 1877, 46,021 in excess of the visitors during the previous exhibition of 1867. In addition to the general impetus given to French trade, the revenue from customs and duties from the foreign visitors increased by nearly three million sterling compared with the previous year. Concurrent with the exposition, a number of meetings and conferences were held to gain consensus on international standards. French writer Victor Hugo led the Congress for the Protection of Literary Property, which led to the eventual formulation of international copyright laws. Other meetings led to efforts to standardize the flow of mail from country to country; the International Congress for the Amelioration of the Condition of Blind People led to the worldwide adoption of the Braille System of touch-reading. Enrique Gaspar y Rimbau's time travel novel El Anacronópete starts with a lecture in the Exposition.
Eoin Colfer's novel Airman begins with its protagonists birth at the Exposition. The Paris firm of Gruel and Engelmann was known for its deluxe bookbindings; the Book of Hours is a Gothic Revival example, the celebrated Paris jeweler Alexis Falize has created a relief showing the Adoration of the Magi, surrounded by fantastic animals derived from the amusing, margina
